Appreciating the Rich Tapestry of History and Art in Santa Fe

Three Sisters mural by Ehren Kee Natay

A couple of weekends ago we drove down to Santa Fe, as Marianne was volunteering at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival with her aunt.  Between events at the festival, Marianne’s aunt gave us an impromptu tour of some of the interesting places around the historic downtown area. We also took a fun trolley tour of downtown and Canyon Road, a half-mile stretch of road where there are over a hundred art galleries, boutiques, and some historic sites.

Here are a few pictures that we took on our tours around Santa Fe.  Enjoy!

Left: The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Middle: Loretto Chapel where the “mysterious” spiral staircase can be found

Right: San Miguel Chapel - The oldest Catholic Church in the continental U.S.

De Vargas Street house, known as the oldest house in Santa Fe, and often said to be one of the oldest buildings in the U.S.

Left: Dragon on top of the Ellsworth Gallery

Middle: Wiford Gallery outdoor garden and wind sculptures

Right: Earth Mother sculpture by Estella Loretto

Gate/Negate sculpture by Apache artist Bob Haozous at the State Capitol, aka “The Roundhouse”

Artist statement:  “This image of a locked gate was a chance for me to analyze multiple issues of cultural exclusion and identity and a recent public arts censorship issue. This gate has all the characteristics of modernity as seen from an indigenous perspective. The lock keeping the gate shut is a heart symbolizing the pretense of love. On the top of the gate is a coil of razor wire symbolizing our isolationism, and the face of the sculpture is covered with bullet holes, airplanes, dollar signs, crosses and racially stereotyped faces representing the American melting pot concept. After installation I painted the names of the extinct peoples who once inhabited the Americas. The decision to paint the ancestral names of these 460 tribes in public view arose from the need to reacquaint myself to seemingly distant fellow Americans."

Left: Residential door along Canyon Road with the traditional chile ristras (a sign of good luck and welcome)

Right: Woodcarving at The Burrito Company restaurant

Journeys’ End sculpture by Raynaldo Rivera in collaboration with landscape architect Richard Borkovetz. 

This is a sculpture group portraying lead wagon of a trail caravan as it makes its final approach into Santa Fe on the Santa Fe Trail. Weary mules struggle to pull the wagon up a rise, while the excitement grows for the travelers as they reach their final approach to Santa Fe.

Left: The New Mexico Museum of Art

Right: Cool door to Julia, a restaurant inside the historic La Posada de Santa Fe Hotel.  The restaurant’s namesake and muse is Julia Staab, an elegant Santa Fe socialite and matriarch of the prominent Staab family, who’s ghost is believed to haunt this former mansion of hers.

Left: One of the two UFO art installations by Bob Davis outside of Nuckolls Brewing Company in the funky Santa Fe Railyard area.

Right: It wouldn’t be New Mexico without seeing a few extra terrestrials around! 👽

Roadrunner made from traffic cones at the New Mexico Department of Transportation building. Art is everywhere in Santa Fe!

Thanks for checking out our pictures! Now back to our irregularly scheduled Rome posts!